Download or read book The Man Who Built the National Football League written by Chris Willis and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2010-08-19 with total page 505 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Founded in 1920, the National Football League chose famed athlete Jim Thorpe as its first president, a position he held briefly until a successor was elected. From 1921 to 1939, Joe F. Carr guided the sport of professional football with intelligence, hard work, and a passion that built the foundation of what the NFL has become: the number one sports organization in the world. During his eighteen-year tenure as NFL President, Carr created the organization's first Constitution & By-Laws; implemented the standard player's contract; wrote the NFL's first-ever Record and Fact Book; helped split the NFL into two divisions and establish the NFL's World Championship Game; started keeping league statistics; and developed the NFL Draft. But Carr's greatest achievement was creating a vision for the NFL as a big-city sport. By skillfully recruiting financially capable owners to operate NFL franchises in big market cities, he created the solid foundation for the league's successful future. While the sport has grown to unheard of heights, Carr's name and accomplishments have been lost and forgotten. The Man Who Built the National Football League: Joe F. Carr captures the life and career of this pivotal figure in professional sports, chronicling the many achievements of a man whose vision helped shaped what the NFL is today. With unlimited access and complete cooperation from the Carr family—including family interviews, personal letters, and family photos—as well as NFL League Minutes, Willis recounts the fascinating life and career of a man dedicated to the game.
Download or read book The Game Before the Money written by Jackson Michael and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2014-09-01 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Oral history from players and coaches detailing the NFL from the late 1930s through the 1970s"--
Download or read book Red Grange written by Chris Willis, head of the Research Library at NFL Films and author of Red Grange: The Life and Legacy of the NFL’s First Superstar and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-08-09 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book tells the remarkable story of Red Grange, a two-time NFL champion and three-time consensus All-American. A humble superstar during the early years of the NFL, Grange became the face of professional football first as a player and then as a coach, broadcaster, pitchman, Hall of Famer, pioneer, and hero.
Download or read book The League written by John Eisenberg and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2018-10-09 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The epic tale of the five owners who shepherded the NFL through its tumultuous early decades and built the most popular sport in America The National Football League is a towering, distinctly American colossus spewing out $14 billion in annual revenue. But it was not always a success. In The League, John Eisenberg focuses on the pioneering sportsmen who kept the league alive in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, when its challenges were many and its survival was not guaranteed. At the time, college football, baseball, boxing, and horseracing dominated America's sports scene. Art Rooney, George Halas, Tim Mara, George Preston Marshall, and Bert Bell believed in pro football when few others did and ultimately succeeded only because at critical junctures each sacrificed the short-term success of his team for the longer-term good of the league. At once a history of a sport and a remarkable story of business ingenuity, The League is an essential read for any fan of our true national pastime.
Download or read book Old Leather written by Chris Willis and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2005-07-07 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this collection of original and archival interviews, former players, owners, fans, family members and league officials provide a rare glimpse into the origins of professional football. Chris Willis, head of the Research Library at NFL Films, conveys what the era of professional football was like in the age of leather helmets, no television, dirt fields, small salaries and playing for the love of the game was its own reward.
Download or read book Dutch Clark written by Chris Willis and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Dutch Clark: The Life of an NFL Legend and the Birth of the Detroit Lions, Chris Willis tells the remarkable story of an athlete from a small town in Colorado who would become one of the NFL's greatest players. Throughout his seven-year NFL career (1931-1932, 1934-1938), quarterback Dutch Clark was selected first team NFL All-Pro six times, led the league in scoring three times, was team captain of the Detroit Lions, and helped the Lions win the 1935 NFL Championship in just their second season in Detroit. Supplemented with archival interviews, never-before-seen photos, newspaper quotes, and anecdotes, Dutch Clark tells the rags-to-riches story of one of the NFL's first stars.
Download or read book NFL Football written by Richard C. Crepeau and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2020-09-14 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The new NFL Centennial Edition A multi-billion-dollar entertainment empire, the National Football League is a coast-to-coast obsession that borders on religion and dominates our sports-mad culture. But today's NFL also provides a stage for playing out important issues roiling American society. The updated and expanded edition of NFL Football observes the league's centennial by following the NFL into the twenty-first century, where off-the-field concerns compete with touchdowns and goal line stands for headlines. Richard Crepeau delves into the history of the league and breaks down the new era with an in-depth look at the controversies and dramas swirling around pro football today: Tensions between players and Commissioner Roger Goodell over collusion, drug policies, and revenue; The firestorm surrounding Colin Kaepernick and protests of police violence and inequality; Andrew Luck and others choosing early retirement over the threat to their long-term health; Paul Tagliabue's role in covering up information on concussions; The Super Bowl's evolution into a national holiday. Authoritative and up to the minute, NFL Football continues the epic American success story.
Download or read book The Columbus Panhandles written by Chris Willis and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2007-02-01 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1901 workers at the Panhandle shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad in Columbus, Ohio formed a professional football team called the Columbus Panhandles. The railroad workers, mainly European immigrants, learned the game of football not on college gridirons, but on the sandlots of railroad yards during their lunch breaks. With the leadership of an innovative team manager and its tough physical play, the Panhandles went on to play for more than twenty years as one of the most successful teams in the rag-tag days of professional football. Incorporating original interviews and actual newspaper accounts, Chris Willis recreates the largely forgotten story of this unique squad of men. In The Columbus Panhandles: A Complete History of Pro Football's Toughest Team, 1900-1922, Willis shows how team manager, future NFL commissioner Joseph Carr, used the perks of free railroad travel for employees and the gate attraction of the famous Nesser brothers to build pro football's most successful traveling team. Season by season, Willis provides a fascinating account of the team's spectacular triumphs and crushing losses. Full of wonderful newspaper quotes, entertaining anecdotes, and many original photos, The Columbus Panhandles also profiles a number of principle figures in the team's history, most notably manager Joe Carr and the six Nesser brothers who comprised the heart of the squad for many years. Written to honor the legacy of the Columbus Panhandles, this book will be of interest to historians, sportswriters and general football fans eager to learn about the early days of professional football.
Download or read book America s Game written by Michael MacCambridge and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2008-11-26 with total page 610 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It’s difficult to imagine today—when the Super Bowl has virtually become a national holiday and the National Football League is the country’s dominant sports entity—but pro football was once a ramshackle afterthought on the margins of the American sports landscape. In the span of a single generation in postwar America, the game charted an extraordinary rise in popularity, becoming a smartly managed, keenly marketed sports entertainment colossus whose action is ideally suited to television and whose sensibilities perfectly fit the modern age. America’s Game traces pro football’s grand transformation, from the World War II years, when the NFL was fighting for its very existence, to the turbulent 1980s and 1990s, when labor disputes and off-field scandals shook the game to its core, and up to the sport’s present-day preeminence. A thoroughly entertaining account of the entire universe of professional football, from locker room to boardroom, from playing field to press box, this is an essential book for any fan of America’s favorite sport.
Download or read book NFL Century written by Joe Horrigan and published by Crown. This book was released on 2019-08-27 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the former executive director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame comes a sweeping and lively history of the National Football League, timed to coincide with the NFL’s 100th anniversary season. “I can think of no one better qualified—or more enthusiastic—to chronicle the National Football League’s century-long history than Joe Horrigan.”—Marv Levy, Hall of Fame NFL coach The NFL has come a long way from its founding in Canton, Ohio, in 1920. In the hundred years since that fateful day, football has become America’s most popular and lucrative professional sport. The former scrappy upstart league that struggled to stay afloat has survived a host of challenges—the Great Depression and World War II, controversies and scandals, battles over labor rights and competition from rival leagues—to produce American icons like Vince Lombardi, Joe Montana, and Tom Brady. It is an extraordinary and entertaining history that could be told only by Joe Horrigan, former executive director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and perhaps the greatest living historian of the NFL, by drawing upon decades of NFL archives. Compelling, eye-opening, and authoritative, NFL Century is a must-read for NFL fans and anyone who loves the game of football. Advance praise for NFL Century “Joe Horrigan takes the reader on a delightful tour of the seminal moments of the NFL in the past one hundred years—the players, owners, coaches, executives, and historical events that made the game of football the most popular in America. It’s a wonderful walk down memory lane for any football fan, young or old.”—Michael Lombardi, author of Gridiron Genius “There is no one—and I mean no one—who knows more about the history of the NFL than Joe Horrigan, the heart and soul of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. As the gold standard of sports leagues celebrates its one hundredth season, it’s appropriate that the gold standard of sports historians has written NFL Century, an entertaining and educational journey.”—Gary Myers, New York Times bestselling author of Brady vs Manning
Download or read book Brand NFL written by Michael Oriard and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2010-09-12 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Professional football today is an $8 billion sports entertainment industry--and the most popular spectator sport in America, with designs on expansion across the globe. In this astute field-level view of the National Football League since 1960, Michael Oriard looks closely at the development of the sport and at the image of the NFL and its unique place in American life. New to the paperback edition is Oriard's analysis of the offseason labor negotiations and their potential effects on the future of the sport, and his account of how the NFL is dealing with the latest research on concussions and head injuries.
Download or read book 100 Yards of Glory written by Joe Garner and published by Houghton Mifflin. This book was released on 2011 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The creators of the best-selling And the Crowd Goes Wild present an officially endorsed collection of key historical events that combines archival photography with coverage of such famed stories as the Immaculate Reception, the Ice Bowl and the Music City Miracle, in a volume complemented by a 10-part documentary by an Emmy Award-winning team.
Download or read book Total Football written by Bob Newhardt Carroll and published by William Morrow. This book was released on 1997 with total page 1652 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "For the first time ever, you'll find complete statistics for every player who has played even a single game in the NFL. Essays on the history of the game, its championship teams, and most significant games are just the beginning." "Total Football also features articles on the evolution of strategy through the years, team histories, the 300 greatest players, football families, players who enjoyed great public careers after football (such as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron White), and the most complete lists ever published on team rosters, awards, and the draft."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Download or read book War Football written by Chris Serb and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-06-26 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During World War I, American army camps, navy stations and marine barracks formed football's first true all-star teams, competing against each other and top colleges while raising millions of dollars for the war effort. More than fifty college football hall-of-famers, dozens of future generals, and two Medal of Honor winners would play for, coach, or promote military teams during the war, including Dwight Eisenhower, Walter Camp, and George Halas. In War Football: World War I and the Birth of the NFL, Chris Serb recounts a fascinating chapter of military and sports history. He details three of the best but long-forgotten seasons of American football, when college amateurs mixed with blue-collar pros on the field of play. These games showed investors a lucrative market for teams of post-collegiate stars and made players realize that their football careers didn’t have to end after college. Soon the barriers to professionalism began to fall, and within two years of the Armistice the National Football League was born. War Football explores for the first time this lost chapter of sports history and makes a direct connection between World War I and the founding of the NFL. Seven future Hall-of-Famers led the charge of more than 200 military veterans who played in, coached for, and shaped the character of the young league. Football fans, sports historians, and military historians alike will find this book a fascinating read.
Download or read book NFL Century written by Joe Horrigan and published by Crown. This book was released on 2019-08-27 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the former executive director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame comes a sweeping and lively history of the National Football League, timed to coincide with the NFL’s 100th anniversary season. “I can think of no one better qualified—or more enthusiastic—to chronicle the National Football League’s century-long history than Joe Horrigan.”—Marv Levy, Hall of Fame NFL coach The NFL has come a long way from its founding in Canton, Ohio, in 1920. In the hundred years since that fateful day, football has become America’s most popular and lucrative professional sport. The former scrappy upstart league that struggled to stay afloat has survived a host of challenges—the Great Depression and World War II, controversies and scandals, battles over labor rights and competition from rival leagues—to produce American icons like Vince Lombardi, Joe Montana, and Tom Brady. It is an extraordinary and entertaining history that could be told only by Joe Horrigan, former executive director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and perhaps the greatest living historian of the NFL, by drawing upon decades of NFL archives. Compelling, eye-opening, and authoritative, NFL Century is a must-read for NFL fans and anyone who loves the game of football. Advance praise for NFL Century “Joe Horrigan takes the reader on a delightful tour of the seminal moments of the NFL in the past one hundred years—the players, owners, coaches, executives, and historical events that made the game of football the most popular in America. It’s a wonderful walk down memory lane for any football fan, young or old.”—Michael Lombardi, author of Gridiron Genius “There is no one—and I mean no one—who knows more about the history of the NFL than Joe Horrigan, the heart and soul of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. As the gold standard of sports leagues celebrates its one hundredth season, it’s appropriate that the gold standard of sports historians has written NFL Century, an entertaining and educational journey.”—Gary Myers, New York Times bestselling author of Brady vs Manning
Download or read book Bronko written by Chris Willis and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-08-10 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The remarkable biography of a small-town athlete who became one of the greatest players in NFL history. Bronislau “Bronko” Nagurski was a superstar for the NFL in the 1930s and one of the pioneer players of the league. He led the Chicago Bears to success on the gridiron as a larger-than-life personality, helping raise the popularity of the NFL during the Great Depression. In Bronko: The Legendary Story of the NFL’s Greatest Two-Way Fullback, NFL Films historian Chris Willis tells the remarkable story of how Bronko became an NFL legend. Throughout his nine-year NFL career, Bronko’s name became synonymous with power football. While the new league fought to gain respect and recognition, Bronko immediately captured the attention of sports fans in Chicago and across the country. The bruising fullback could do everything: run, block, tackle, and even throw the occasional pass. With the complete cooperation of the Nagurski family and unlimited access to personal letters, family scrapbooks, and photos, Bronko is the definitive biography of a true sports pioneer and NFL great.
Download or read book The Game Before the Money written by Jackson Michael and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2014-09-01 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Game before the Money recounts the National Football League’s story and the evolution of America’s most popular sport in the vivid words of men who built the NFL. This unprecedented look at football history from the players’ perspective combines the stories of icons such as Frank Gifford and Bart Starr with those of journeymen who shared the huddle with Johnny Unitas and rallied to halftime speeches from legendary coaches Vince Lombardi and George Halas. Featuring players from the 1930s through the 1970s, these personal accounts trace professional football in its journey from post-barnstorming days through the first two decades of the Super Bowl. The Game before the Money offers backstories to classic games and the men who made history in them before multi-million dollar contracts. Insights into life in the NFL come from those most capable of providing it, NFL legends themselves. Forty former players open windows onto their own lives, their triumphs and tragedies, and the hardship and the glory that make them the people they are both on and off the field.
